Running head: NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION 1

Differences of Cultural Nonverbal Communication

Between American and Chinese

Qianhe Guo

University of Kentucky

NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION 2

Abstract

This paper aims at the differences of nonverbal communication, and focuses more on the

differences between Americans and Chinese. Also in the paper, I use the research method of

theory which find in Looking Out Looking In to analysis and a lot of practical examples that find

in the research paper. And in this paper I am trying to provide a comparison study to show the

cultural differences in nonverbal communication between Americans and Chinese. In the paper,

it emphasis on the comparisons of some parts of nonverbal communication such as posture,

gestures, eye contact, touch, silence, nonverbal sounds and time, body space. This kind of

research is important for the development from one country to another since the whole is more

connect than older times, and for this paper, it will give some idea for both Americans and

Chinese to understand each other better from the nonverbal part. And it gives people an general

idea that what to do under the different culture.

Keywords: Nonverbal Communication, Cultural, Chinese, American

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Differences of Cultural Nonverbal Communication

Introduction

What is nonverbal communication?

From the word “nonverbal” we can easily know that this single word means that “no

words”, and “nonverbal communication” means that people try to communicate with each other

without using the word. In the book Looking Out Looking In, Adler define nonverbal

communication as “messages expressed by nonlinguistic means.” (Adler, 2011)

When we talk to people face-to-face, we can always get some information from the word

that others saying. Meanwhile, we can also get a lot of information from the body language.

Even in real life we sometimes will pay more attention on words, however, when we make the

judgment or a fair guess about other people, we will consider the nonverbal communication and

words are the same. And research shows that the verbal communication only 30% in

conversation and nonverbal communications play an important role during the communications.

Pease said that nonverbal communication involves all the nonverbal actions in the

communication. And there are lots of types of nonverbal communications. In general we can

break nonverbal in three parts: the body language, paralanguage, and environmental language

(Na, 2009).

Why it is important to know the differences between two different cultures?

In communication, we divided the culture into two contexts. One of these is high-context

cultures; another one is called low-context cultures. Anthropologist Edward Hall identified that

low-context culture generally like using more words to explain their thoughts, feelings, and ideas,

they like people telling things more directly; for people who belong to the high-context culture,

they use language to keep social harmony, and they do not like saying thing in a direct way. For

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the nonverbal communication, the high-context culture emphasizes nonverbal communication

more implicit, indirect, and vague while low-context emphasizes explicit, direct, and obvious.

(Adler, 2011) Moreover, Chinese belong to high-context culture, and for Americans, they belong

to the low-context. In America, people are more relying on verbal information, while Chinese are

relying more on nonverbal information. (Zhang, 2006) Americans like being directly while

Chinese are vaguer. Thus, we need to learn about the differences in cultural patterns so that we

can understand each other, and adapt to the behavior of people from another culture.

Discussion

Body Language

Body language in nonverbal communication usually means that people use the body

posture, gestures, facial expressions, and eye contact to sending or receiving messages. (Adler,

2011) People from different culture will have some differences of body language. That means

that people from different culture will have the same body language, but have the different

meaning; or using the different body language, but have the same meaning.

Posture is a way that people carry out their body, for example, the body posture contains

standing, lying. In China, when you need to call a taxi on the street, you need to wave your arms

from one side to another side, and this means that you need a taxi; however, in US, most people

will face to the taxi that drive though, and make a fist without the thumb, and then move it

around .However, that moves in China, only means that people agree with others idea, or means

word “good” or “I am okay”. Also in China, if a student is asked a question by the teacher, he or

she has to stand up and answer the question; however, in most western countries, students do not

have to stand up to answer the question.

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Gesture is a movement by using hands or arms, and gesture is an important type in body

language (Na, 2009). It is also a nature thing for most people. When we were born, we already

know how to use this move. And gestures already consider as the first form of human

communication (Chen, 2007). Both Chinese and American using nod the head up and down for

words “yes”, and shock the head form one side to another side means word “no”. But in India,

nodding head means “no”, and shocking head from one side to another side means “yes”, this

make a big different. However, in China, nodding head can also be an action to greet people or

asking someone to come.

The most important channel for us to receive and send the nonverbal message is our eyes

(Matsumoto,2006). For now, a lot of studies of eye communications have been concerned with

the eye contact. The main idea of eye contact is to look or not. In America, people like look

someone’s eyes and talked. For most western people, they think that if people are fair to look

others eyes, that means they are hiding something, or lying. However, in China, it will make

people feel wired if someone making a long time eye contact. In China, people frequently avoid

direct eye contact with others. (Matsumoto, 2006)

Touch contact is also called physical contact, or touching behaviors. It is to feel or strike

or make connection with a part of the body and the study of touch is called haptics (Adler, 2011).

Touch is considered as a bonding gesture. Asians do more touch than Americans. In Asian

culture, people always like living together, the family means a lot. This living model of

togetherness refers to the pleasant feeling of being united with others in relationship, friendship,

and understanding. By contrast, since America belongs to individualistic cultures, in this culture

“the needs of each person are considered important, and most people would agree that it is an

individual’s right to stand up for himself or herself” (Adler, 2011). In China, a lot of girls like

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holding each other’s hand walking or put arm on others shoulder when they are walking on the

street. For Americans, this action seems too close, and some of them may think that those girls

are the homosexual.

Paralanguage

The paralanguage is “to describe nonverbal, vocal message.” (Adler, 2011) Once a

message sends, people can get more than one meanings for a single word. Sometimes, how a

word or words is said may not be the actual meaning of the word or words that be spoken.

Silence is an example of the paralanguage. Silence means that people will not make

sounds during the talk. In China, we have an old saying said “Silence is gold”. And sometimes,

Chinese will hold an idea that silence means everything. In Chinese culture, people give more

meaning for silence, and understand the silence well. For Chinese, we can easily understand

what the silence means in some certain condition, the silence would be agree or disagree in some

situation; or under some circumstances, the silence would be support or against some opinions.

However, for Americans, they usually think being silence is impolite, and sometimes, they will

misunderstand the movement of the silence. In communication, Western people are more prefer

to be straight, even if sometimes they may got a negative feedback like “I don’t want to talk to

you”, “I don’t like you”. They think that it is better to get a negative feedback than being silence,

because at least they know what others think. And the silence makes them feel that they are not

important, and sometimes they think that being ignored is a huge humiliation (Zhang, 2006).

However, for Chinese, people rather say nothing than give somebody a negative feedback.

Turning-taking is making some sounds which make no meaning during the conversation

(Song, 2012). Americans like doing turning-taking during the communication. The words like

“oh”,”en”,”em”, are all the turning-taking words, they have no meanings during the

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communication. The reason that Americans love to do this is that they prefer talk rather than

keep silence. People do not want make the talking become a sudden cold field, which will make

them feel uncomfortable (Song, 2012).

Environmental language

In environmental language, it contains the time, space, color and so on (Adler, 2011).

Chronemics is the term that “describe the study of how humans use and structure time”

(Adler, 2011). Time is abstract for most time, we cannot hold the time or see it, but we still

respect to it since it can control our lives. From this we can see how important time is in our

normal life. Most time, we take about time is how we spend the time or how we use the time.

Under different culture, people have different views about using time. In Germany, arrive on

time is a respect and politeness, being late is rude. Germans think that people should do

everything on time, which means that they do not want the visitors come too early or too late.

In China, when you are invited to someone’s house or party, you should be there on time

or little bit early. And as the host, you should prepare the food or other things early. However, in

America, if someone invited you a party, you should be there a little bit late, and people think

that being a little bit late is polite. I still remember my first Christmas party, I went to the party

on time, however, I was the first one in that party, and when I been there, the hosts were still

preparing the food for the party. The hosts were very surprised when they saw me, and after that

I learned that if someone invited you to a party, you should courtesy late for a moment, but not

too long. And in China, people love to say “Take your time”, “Slow down, do not worry about

the time”, however, in America, especially in Wall Street New York, you will see people walk so

fast, and you will hear people saying that “Time is money”, “Don’t waste your time”.

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Body space is also an element in environmental language. People will keep a distance

when they talk. The social distance is different in different culture. In America, people generally

stand “at arm’s length” (about 30 inches) from a person when they are having a conversation.

And only family members or little children come closer (Wang, 2007). However, in China,

people love stand a little bit closer, and if two friends stand too further, people will feel that they

are not friends at all. It is very important for Americans to keep a social space, however, for

Chinese, they are used to crowding, and for most Chinese, if they find some places are very

crowded, in their mind, they will think that place is the best and very attractive. Whereas, under

the same situation, Americans will choose to leave and come back later.

Conclusion

There are two types of communication in the world, one is verbal and one is nonverbal

communication. The researches for verbal communication have got a lot of attentions, and many

researchers focus more on the verbal communication; however, in face-to-face communication, a

lot of information is sending by nonverbal communication. From this, we can say that nonverbal

communication plays an important role for the communication.

With the development of the world’s economy and new communication technology,

people from different parts of the world get closer than we used to, international communication

becomes much easier and faster, and cultural communication happens more frequently. So if

people want successful in cultural communication, it is not enough for us just knowing how to

say the language, we need to know more about the cultural differences, and understand the

nonverbal actions from another country. And in the cultural communication, the first thing we

need to do is “Do in Rome as Rome Does.” This means that people from different culture should

make communication under understanding and respect each other’s the cultural features, national

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customs, and religion faith. And under some situation, people should change themselves a little

bit to fit into the new culture. However, that does not means that people should give up all of the

cultural customs that they used to have. We should change ourselves when we in a new culture,

but the most important thing is that we need to find the common and different. We can try to

avoid the mistakes and stereotype. Also, we can play some roles when we communicate with

others (Song, 2012).

However, in my research, I find it that with the world connects more frequently, the

nonverbal communication is more likely from one culture to another culture. Like people in

America, also use nodding head to say “Hi”, when they cannot speak to others. And when I try to

find some research about the differences between China and America, I noticed that most

researches were using the experiments that people did in early 90’s, and it is really hard to find

some experiments that researchers did in recently years. The old experiments need to be

improved since the world is more connected. And the new generations are not the same as the

older generations. And for now, China are more open than it used to, and as a new generation in

China, I think that the culture in China had changed a lot. The culture type needs to improve, and

in different part of China, the culture is different. Some parts are more open, while others are

more traditional.

Also, I found that the article that talks nonverbal differences between Chinese and

Americans is hard to find, and for most article I find that useful for me are written by Chinese

scholars, for American scholars, they are more concentrated on a big part not just a single

country. So for this research, I get a lot of information for the Chinese scholars’ views, but only

have little information from American scholars’ views. For the future research, I will pay more

attention on the nonverbal differences between western culture and Asian culture.

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